I was concerned that Musk doesn’t realise the broader impact of his lashing out. With every criticism lobbed at a journalist, (or a scientist), Musk reinforces the growing public mistrust of essential institutions seeded by the Donald Trump wing of the GOP. And, though the Tesla co-founder later clarified that he believes some nanoscience is legitimate, the downstream result of his original tweet is that Divisekera has spent days defending her science and explaining why it’s legitimate.